Filter type cigarettes



Aug. 27, 19 7 J. A. SAFFlR 2,804,078

FILTER TYPE CIGARETTES Filed Oct. 13, 1954 I N VEN TOR.

United States Patent 2,804,078 FILTER 'IYPE CIGARETTES Jacob A. Saflir, Los Angeles, Calif. Application October 13, 1954, Serial No. 462,041 2 Claims. (Cl. 131-10) This invention relates to the small roll of tobacco adapted for smoking usage comprising the cigarette and cigar art. More particularly, it pertains to an improvement in filter containing cigarettes, popularly known as built-in filter or so-called filter-tip cigarettes.

Filters built into a cigarette are effective, to a degree, in removing some of the harmful ingredients from the smoke before it can enter the mouth and lungs. However only a portion of the cigarettes purchased today are of the filter type.

People smoke primarily because of the taste and aroma of tobacco itself. Moreover, it is generally recognized that present built-in filters alter the taste and aroma of cigarettes, for some smokers, to such an extent that the smoker often feels he is on a bland diet and misses the tobacco taste and kic of the unfiltered cigarette smoke.

With smoking under suspicion as an injurious agent in diseases of the lung, mouth, etc., many smokers would welcome a device to minimize a health risk but cannot bring themselves to accept a substitute for their smoke that practically does away with their pleasure and relief in smoking.

It is an object of this invention to obviate to a considerable extent the shortcomings of the prior art built-in filter or filter tip cigarettes and thus make filtered cigarette smoking more acceptable to the smoker.

The smokerreceives various satisfactions from his cigarette or cigar. After meals he may desire a very light smoke. Here, full filtering of his smoke may improve his enjoyment of it.

When the cigarette is an expression of nervousness or worry, nothing but a strong smoke may fill the need. There are other occasions when the smoker may desire to puff on a mild smoke first and to conclude his smoking with a few stronger puffs so he will be left with a feeling of greater satisfaction.

It is an object of this invention to provide a built-in filter or filter-tip cigarette which affords the smoker a choice in the degree of filtering and/ or the amount thereof that he desires.

It is a further object of this invention to encourage filtered smoking by making it available even to the smoker who would want only part of his smoke filtered.

Other objects, advantages and features of the invention will become apparent from the following description read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.

Pursuant to the present invention, the intake of harmful ingredients would be greatly curtailed and the smoker would have increased protection against their possible ill effects on him.

Most smokers could accustom themselves to complete filtering more readily and with a minimum of discomfort if they could make use of a filter to the extent desired during the smoking of a cigarette, and if they did not have to confine themselves to an entire cigarette that was filtered.

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The figure illustrates a side view of a cigarette. At 1 is the end to be lit or the burning end of the tobacco filled portion of the cigarette. At 2 is the filter end to be placed in the mouth or the mouth end.

The section 3 comprising the major body portion of the cigarette is packed with tobacco, the mouth end section 4 determining the minor body portion is packed with one or more separable filters or filter elements and both of these sections in substantially contiguous contact with each other are enclosed in an outer unitary or integral envelope or wrapper 5, desirably of paper and usually of one piece.

It is, of course, possible to use other wrappers, such as tobacco, etc., for the outer envelope. Also, the outer envelope need not be constructed of one piece but can be made up of seamed sections together comprising an integral or unitary wrapper, with separation possible at the seams, where they comprise lines of weakness peripherally of the plane of contact between the tobacco section and filter or filter elements in the mouth-end section, similarly to separation permitted by perforation or crimping.

My invention comprises providing clearly defined lines of weakness, such as by perforating or crimping the surface of the envelope or wrapper of a cigarette in the filter area to provide a peripheral line or lines of severance so that, depending upon the number of separable filter elements comprising the filter, all or part of the filter may be divisible from and can be removed at the will of the smoker; or otherwise so treating, preparing, or manufacturing a cigarette that the filter area can be modified or separated, while the tobacco content of the cigarette is retained at constant length.

When the envelope or wrapper is perforated or appropriately crimped at 6, to provide a peripheral line of weakness conforming with the plane of separable contact between the respective tobacco and filter containing portions of the cigarette, the smoker can flick oi the entire filter at will and have left the ordinary filter-less in its entirety cigarette. Should he desire partial filtering, he can sever or tear off one of a plurality of separable filter elements, comprising a portion of the filter, along a peripheral line of weakness 7 conforming with the plane of contact and separation between two contiguous filters.

At peripheral line 7 the entire body of the cigarette filter may be removed where it comprises a single separable element or alternatively by way of illustration, two separate filters or filter elements in contact with each other may comprise the filter one in the area 9 and the other in area 10, with the wrapper perforated to afford a surface line of weakness peripherally of their plane of contact. By removing the portion 9, the filter area 8 is left for partial filtering.

The user may smoke his cigarette down any portion he likes and then flick away all or part of the filter for a stronger smoke to finish off with.

While two peripheral lines of weakness, such as, 6 and '7, are here illustrated, corresponding with two separable filters, it is understood that there may be only one or any predetermined number of such lines of weakness conforming with the number of separable filters or filter elements in the mouth-end section of the cigarette. Instead of effecting the lines of weakness by a peripheral line of perforation, this may be a heavy crimp at 6 or 7. A sharp crimp line also permits easy separation along the said lines for attaining the desired divisible sections.

It will be understood that the term unitary, as utilized in the foregoing disclosure and in the appended claims, with reference to the outer wrapper for enveloping the cigarette contents, is intended to embrace a single or one-piece wrapper, and likewise within the scope of the said term is a wrapper comprising a plurality of seg ments which are attached or seamed to each other in a manner to afiord a complete or undivided wrapper.

While 'I'have described desirable embodiments, it is obvious 'that many changes may be made in the details of construction and in the combination ofparts and materials without departingfromlhe spirit of the invention as defined in'the following claims.

Having thus set forth my invention, "I'lclaim: 1. A cigarette .cornprisinga unitary ou'terwrapper for my invention in accordance with enveloping its contents and definingthe body portion therer fdivisible from said first sectionby a.clearly defined peripheral line of weakness'on the surface of the said wrapper,

said wrapper extending the full length of the tobacco section andfilter section.

2. A cigarette comprisinga unitanyouter wrapper-tor enveloping ,its .contents and defining the body portion thereof, ,thecontents. of said wrapper comprising a tobacco section of constant length, and a mouth-end section cornprising -a plurality of separable non-tobacco filters, said latter section being divisible from said first section by a clearly defined peripheral line of weakness on said wrap per, and said filters being separable from each other by a peripheral line of weakness on said wrapper, said wrap per extending the full length of the tobacco section and filter section.

References'Cited-in the'file of-this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,101,127 Bruins Dec. 7, 1937 2,269,995 Trane Jan. 13, 1942 2,389,104 Bauer-et'al. Nov. 13, 1945 2,747,579 Gage et al May 29, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 194,240 Switzerland June 1, 1938 

